Monthly Archives: October 2013

Economic Uncertainty – Mr Kamal Nath, Minister of Urban Development

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Mr Kamal Nath, Minister of Urban Development

Good morning everyone. I’m delighted to be here amongst AIMA for the 40th National Management Convention and I would like to congratulate AIMA on its ruby jubilee of NMC.

Ruby jubilee seems to be a nice word. It has always been a pleasure to attend AIMA’s conventions. I have seen AIMA grow from strength to strength and I have attended many of their conventions as it evolved into a think tank and a hub of management development and education. Though it’s not easy for a purely voluntary, non lobbying organisation, to succeed, AIMA has won the respect and support of the management fraternity, academia and government through its efforts to build India’s management capacity. Once again, through this convention, AIMA is trying to explore the possible management responsive, prevailing uncertainty and this is indeed commendable. I would like to congratulate Ms. Chanda Kochar & Mr. Aseem Premji, who have become legends in the lifetime of stupendous achievements. You have not only led corporative institutions but have made several contributions to the brand India. Your work is an inspiration to the new generation of Indian entrepreneurs and executives. Mr. Gopalakrishanan, you are a visionary of the TATA Group and a wonderful writer. I would like to congratulate the award winners as well. Continue reading →

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Courage in Uncertainty – Mr Rajiv Bajaj, Managing Director, Bajaj Auto Ltd

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Mr Rajiv Bajaj, Managing Director, Bajaj Auto Ltd

Good morning everyone. This is perhaps the third or fourth time AIMA has invited me to speak and I don’t know why they have called me up again but I’ll tell you why I like coming here. Well, first of all, because Rekha is wonderful and also, Shiv, Gautam and Sanjiv and the others, you all are very nice and very warm and welcoming. But most of all and I say this from my heart, I find that this is the best audience to be with. I mean, there is always so much energy in this room.

The theme of the conference is ‘courage in uncertainty’ and when I was given the executive summary, this is what it said: facing the future and uncertainty with courage is not a way, but the only way. This is what I received from AIMA. Well, this in itself is not new. Aristotle said centuries ago, that courage is the first of all virtues because without it we cannot act on any other virtue. So, that has been acknowledged a long time back. But let me also share with you what a very well known doctor said, a very long time back, Dr. Michael Boyd. He said, “All that which is powerful for good is potent for evil”. It’s good to diet, but it’s not good to diet too much. It is good to exercise, but it’s not good to exercise too much. It’s good to work, but it’s not good to work too much. Therefore, all that is powerful for good is powerful for evil as well. So, courage, I think, is powerful for good but courage can also be very potent for evil, and that is why my presentation starts with a question- “courage is uncertainty?” What I mean to convey is that there is a lot of uncertainty that we find ourselves in, self inflicted, brought upon us by ourselves because we’re being too courageous, perhaps full hardy. So, what I’m going to do for the next few minutes is as Shahrukh said to all of us yesterday, he’s here less to talk about success and more about failure in the context of success. Continue reading →

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Role of Courage in Success – Shahrukh Khan, Actor, producer & television presenter

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I am going to say good evening again, because that’s how I started the speech. First of all, it’s really scary here. Some of the biggest managers of the biggest corporations in the biggest convention for management – AIMA.

It’s very sad that in such an august company of people, big business houses and managers, all you could manage was to get a speaker from Bollywood to speak at the convention. The economy must be really bad.

Well, who am I to speak about the economic downtrend across the globe etc, or anything, for that matter? Just reading the topics being discussed before I came on stage, I was frightened. And if I’m allowed to say so, shit scared. I couldn’t understand a word. Let me tell you one of the discussions they had earlier on in the day – ‘Could financialisation of commodities be used to incentivise supply growth without inflating prices?’  Continue reading →

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